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I 



PERILS 

OF THE 

CHURCH 

IN, THE 

WORLD OF TO-DAY. 



A Series of Four Sermons 



By E. Iv. Powell, 



TH6 P6RILS OF THE STKCB. 
TH6 P6RILS OF THE DHNCE. 
TH6 PSRILS OF SOCIETY. 
TH6 P6RILS OF BUSINESS. 



DELIVERED IN THE 

Fourth and Walnut st., Ghristiar\ Ghurch, 
LOUISVILLE, KY. 



COP TRIG If TEL). 






Louisville, Ky. 
Guide Printing & Publishing Co. 

iSoi. 



MWiK'KViWSWOT'lOTK'HWW 



■ 



PERILS 

OF THE 

CHURCH 

IN THE 

WORLD OF TO-DAY 



A. Series of Four Sermons 

By B. Iv- Powell, 



Trie PGRILS OF THE STHGE. 
Trie PeRILS OF THE DHNCE. 
THe PeRILS OF SOCIETY. 
THe PeRILS OF BUSINESS. 






DELIVERED IN THE 

Fourth ar\d Walrwit st, Ghristiarv Ghurch, 
LOUISVILLE, KY. 



COPTRIGHTED. 



Louisville, Ky. 

Guide Printing & Publishing Co. 

[8oi. 



<73; 




copyrighted by 

Ladies Relief Union of First Christian 

Church, Louisville, Ky. 






PERILS OK THE STAGE, 



It is interesting to read the history 
of the theatre. This institution, ex- 
tending as far back as the days of the 
immortal Aeschylus, in whose time the 
first theatre was hewn in the rocky 
side of the Acropolis, has descended 
to us crowned with years, but not with 
honor. It can boast of a most anti- 
quated and eventful history, but a his- 
tory by no means entitling it to apo- 
theosis. Some of the most brilliant 
names in literature are connected with 
the theatre, but the lustre of their fame 
has failed to dignify the stage whereon 
were enacted their glorious produc- 
tions. 

That the drama occupies an import- 
ant place in the world of letters will 
not be denied, but its prominence does 
not make useless a discussion of the 
moral tendency of the theatre. 

In the consideration of this question, 
we do not wish, under the influence of 
prejudice, to deviate from the truth. 
While admitting all that can be truth- 
fully spoken in favor of the theatre, we 



PERILS OF THE STAGE. 



wish candidly to bring before you op- 
posing arguments, and you are called 
upon to decide in the light of the facts 
thus submitted. Let it be understood 
that we are to discuss the moral tend- 
ency of the theatre — studying its drift 
as it is made known to us both in the 
past and present. The stage has been 
an existing institution for over two 
thousand years. All favorable influ- 
ences for its developments have, at dif- 
ferent times in its history, surrounded 
it. Genius has brought its most costly 
offerings and laid them on its altar. It 
has been patronized by wealth and 
learning. While it has met with op- 
position, it has had free course to run 
and be glorified, if worthy of glorifica- 
tion. What results has it achieved in 
the moral world? What has been the 
almost uniform influence which it has 
exerted? What spiritual conquest has 
it ever made? Where are those who 
will affirm that their characters have 
have been made more true, beautiful 
and good, by being its patrons? Let 
us turn the pages of history, and what 
are the facts that are brought to our 
attention? 

i. Consider the origin of the institu- 
tion. The two great divisions of 
dramatic literature — literature, that is, 
intended to be represented by action — . 



PERILS OF THE STAGE. 




are tragedy and comedy. This division 
was the creation of the ancient Greeks. 
Notice how tragedy and comedy were 
born. "In the festivals of Bacchus, 
the wine-god, which consisted of licen- 
tious dances and songs round his altar 
by persons disguised in goat-skins as 
fauns and satyrs (being half-man and 
half-goat) we must look for the earliest 
phase of tragedy. From the dress of 
those who composed the chorus, or 
because a goat was sacrificed, or a 
goat-skin of wine was awarded to the 
poet who wrote the best ode for the 
occasion ; such ode was called a tragedy 
or goat-song, and the name was after- 
wards extended to the whole depart- 
ment of dramatic poetry to which 
those rude hymns gave rise." As to 
comedy the same classical author 
thus writes: "Comedy was elaborated 
from the village songs rife during the 
gala days of the vintage, when com- 
panies of noisy revellers, their cheeks 
stained with wine-lees, went about 
from town to town, plunging into all 
kinds of excesses, and garnishing their 
songs with jokes at the expense of 
the spectators." The very word 
comedy is from a Greek word, mean- 
ing a band of revellers. From these 
Bacchanalian orgies sprang the theatre. 
It is most certainly bad in its origin. I 



PERILS OF THE STAGE. 



do not deny that tragedy and comedy 
were subsequently improved and re- 
lined, but I do affirm that the tragedy 
and comedy of our modern theatre are 
more suggestive of their origin, taken 
in connection with their accompani- 
ments, than of any subsequent im- 
provement they have undergone. 

The modern theatre may well be 
dedicated to Bacchus. Tragedy and 
comedy alike have still their vulgar 
and indecent accompaniments. The 
licentious dance, as a part of theatrical 
machinery, still survives. The habitue 
of oui* play-honses will not deny that 
revelry is still a feature of the expected 
program. I do not affirm that every 
tragedy is bad ; every comedy impure, 
or that every stage has enacted on it 
immorality. We speak of the theatre 
as a totality, and claim that as it exists 
to-day, it is suggestive of its immoral 
origin. You have but to examine the 
bills as they are posted about the 
streets of our cities to be assured of the 
truth of what has been said. "The 
dead walls are covered with flaunting 
pictorial representations of scenes and 
of actors in full dress (or of no dress 
at all) ; and many of these arc of such 
disgusting indecency that they deserve 
suppression by the public authorities. 
If the pictures be so shameless, what 




Perils of the stage. 



must the originals be? " From an ex- 
tract published in the Courier- Journal^ 
taken from The Theatre^ a dramatic 
paper of New York, I quote the fol- 
lowing: Mark you, this is from a 
paper professedly dedicated to the in- 
terests of the stage. The author is 
tracing the influence of the theatre on 
our social life. He says : " It is easy 
to see, is it not, how powerful can be 
the effect of stage immorality, and it is 
not to be wondered at that men of 
literature and learning, of wide and 
liberal knowledge, whose mission it is 
to warn and guard, declare in this art 
an evil which is fostered there simply 
because this art is prostituted for sel- 
fish purposes. We have no public 
censor in this country. The only 
method of determining the immorality 
of a stage performance is to see it for 
ourselves, but unhappily that is where 
the mischief is done. 

It is only a few years ago that 
parents would not think of allowing 
their daughters to witness a ballet- 
piece like the * Black Crook.' But 
that time has gone by, and young men 
and maidens sit together and witness 
almost nudity, without the droop of an 
eyelid. The Grand Opera during the 
last few seasons, has given more utter- 
ance to immorality in the auditorium 



PERILS OF THE STAGE. 



and on the stage than anything else, 
for its effect has been among those 
who had not yet become fully ac- 
quainted with this." No wonder that 
even a secular paper like the Courier- 
journal should say, " It is a shame to 
the age." Born in sin, the theatre ex- 
ists to-day in iniquity. 

2. But you are ready to say, it may 
be, the history of the theatre is not 
altogether evil. Let this be granted, 
nevertheless I am prepared to maintain 
that its history has been more frequent- 
ly stained with immorality than bright- 
ened with virtue. The first theatre 
was erected, if I read correctly, at 
Athens. Under its favoring skies the 
drama soon advanced to perfection. 
From the time of Aeschylus until the 
Peloponesian war deprived Athens of 
her supremacy, may be considered the 
golden age of dramatic literature. Then 
Aeschylus gave to the world his im- 
mortal " Prometheus Bound"; Sopho- 
cles his " Oedipus," and Euripedes his 
" Medea." Then Aristophanes brought 
to perfection Grecian comedy, and 
" Nature broke the mould in which he 
was cast." Admitting the high order of 
this literature, although of the comedy 
of this age, it has been said that it was 
"always personal and sometimes 
scurrilous in its attacks, too often 



PERILS OF THE STAGE. 




course and licentious in its tone " — ad- 
mitting that the stage was a moral 
educator — admitting all this we must 
exclaim as we take the next step in its 
history, and certainly as we view it 
to-day — " Now is the fine gold become 
dim." From the Greeks the Romans 
copied their theatre, but certainly it 
was not so high-toned or dignified in 
its representations, for we read : " The 
first stone theatre among the Romans 
was pulled down when nearly finished 
at the instance of Publius Scipio Nasica 
(755 B. C.) on the score of public im- 
morality." A writer on Latin litera- 
ture says: "Certainly in the time of 
Scipio and Hannibal — the time of 
Livius Andronicus, the first Roman 
author, the stage had not become a 
safe moral educator of the people." 
Nor could it be when the plays of 
Plautus and Terence were enacted. Of 
Plautus it is said : " The tone of his 
drama is far from elevating, his humor 
tho' bold and sprightly, is coarse; and 
his Greek pictures of imbecile fathers, 
dissipated sons, intriguing slaves, jeal- 
ous husbands, hungry parasites and 
disreputable female characters, had 
their effect in underming the stern old 
Roman virtue." It would appear that 
at Rome from the very beginning the 
profession of an actor was held to be 



10 PERILS OF THE STAGE. 

dishonorable. Julius Caesar punished 
Labienus, a writer of epigrams and 
farces, by forcing him to appear on the 
stage, when he was sixty years old, 
recite a play and act a comic piece. 
The stage was but the preparation so 
far as Rome was concerned for still 
coarser amusements. Rome was no 
genial home for the tragic drama, and 
both tragedy and comedy began to 
languish. With Terence the glory of 
the Roman theatre expired. Rope- 
dancing, buffoonery and the games of 
the circus offered superior attractions, 
and as the Republic lapsed into the 
Empire, the degenerate taste of the 
people sought gratification in the 
sports of the arena, where gladiators 
fought together or with wild beasts 
hardly more of brutes than themselves." 
If this was the best to which the 
theatre could educate them, we may 
not speak a word favorable to the 
theatre. I need not trace the history 
of the theatre in England. Having a 
religious origin, beginning with the 
"mysteries" or " miracle-plays," in- 
tended for the strengthening of the 
church, then introducing the " Morali- 
ties " or ethical plays, and finally 
reaching a consummation in the 

" Interludes " or plays of social life it 

has deviated ever since from all relig-. 



Perils of the stage. 11 

ious influences and surroundings. Not 
only has the stage drifted farther and 
farther away from its religious origin, 
but also from common morality and 
decency. To read the history of the 
English stage is to have brought be- 
fore you a picture of corruption that no 
one need wish to retain in his memory. 
My proposition is, therefore, substanti- 
ated — the history of the stage has 
been more frequently stained with im- 
morality than brightened with virtue. 

3. Observe, still again, that the stage 
has always reflected the lowest taste of 
its age. " Plautus and Terence have 
been imitated in every land and both 
were forced to obey the course taste 
of the savage Romans." In England 
the same was true. You have but to 
study the taste of the people, to ascer- 
tain the good or bad influence of the 
theater. I quote from Taine's English 
Literature, and you will see the taste 
that was gratified by the English stage ; 
" They thought insults and obscenity a 
joke. They were foul-mouthed, they 
listened to Rabelais' words undiluted, 
and delighted in conversation which 
would revolt us. They had no respect 
for humanity. They all blurted out 
the word that fitted in, and that was 
most frequently a coarse one. You 
will see on the stage in Shakespear's 



12 PERILS OF THE STAGE. 

Pericles, the filth of a haunt of vice. 
The great lords, the well-dressed la- 
dies, speak Billingsgate. When Hen- 
ry Fifth pays his court to Catherine of 
France, it is with the coarse bearing of 
a sailor, who may have taken a fancy 
to a sutler. Humanity is as much lack- 
ing as decency." " To please the pub- 
lic the stage can not deal too much in 
open lust and strong passions; it must 
depict man attaining the limit of his 
desires, unchecked, almost mad, now 
trembling and rooted before the white 
palpitating flesh which his eyes de- 
vour." " We hear from the stage as 
from the history of the time these 
fierce murmurs. The sixteenth centu- 
ry is like a den of lions." Now while 
there may have been spasmodic spells 
of improvement in the theater, its uni- 
form trend has been in the direction of 
such immorality as Taine has depicted. 
Our own stage is but an added proof 
of my proposition. What do our thea- 
ters give us? To whose taste do they 
cater? To that taste which cries for 
indecent and immoral exhibitions. I 
need not bring forward evidence. The 
experiment, as tried in Boston, of so 
managing a theater as to exclude every 
indelicacy from the stage, and every 
notoriously improper person from the 
audience, ended in pecuniary failure. 




MftlLS OF THfi STAGE. 1^ 

The puritanic play-house soon went 
into bankruptcy. 

The chief object of the manager is 
to make money, and if he can spice 
his evening's entertainment with a plot 
that turns on a seduction or a scene of 
sexual passion, or with a salacious ex- 
posure of physical beauty, the tempta- 
tion is too strong to be very often re- 
sisted. Would you have additional 
proof? I ask you to examine the 
plays. Look at the titles of some of 
them : " Russian Honeymoon," " Hot 
Water," « Tom, Dick and Harry." I 
read from the Enquirer : " Augustus 
Daly and two detectives escorted the 
English playwrights, Jones and Pinero, 
through the dives of New York.' ' We 
can look for a new melo-drama next 
season entitled, " Alone in New York." 
The plays that win, the plays that 
draw, the plays that put money into 
the exchequer, are those that cater to a 
depraved and vitiated taste. And those 
of you who patronize the theater are 
aiding in the strengthening of such a 
taste. 

Fourth — I ask you to notice that the 
lives of actors are notoriously immoral. 
Those who gave luster to the English 
stage — a writer says of them : u They 
were most of them men of liberal edu- 
cation, but of dissolute lives." That 



14 PERILS OF THE STAGE. 

has been almost uniformly true. Do 
they care anything for the Lord's day? 
You are acquainted with the fight that 
has been made in Cincinnati on the 
above question. Are they patrons of 
the Lord's house? A converted actor 
in passing a play house in which he 
had performed, said : " Behind those 
curtains lies Sodom." From a 
clipping of mine I read the following: 
" When clergymen speak against 
the theater and express doubts as to 
the characters of actors they are often 
charged with bigotry and uncharitable- 
ness. Mr. Burnand, editor of London 
Punch, is not likely to be influenced 
by such tendencies, and he says that if 
a well brought-up young lady goes on 
the stage * one of two things will hap- 
pen: either she will be so thoroughly 
disgusted by what she hears and sees 
that she will never go near the place 
after the first visit, or she will uncon- 
sciously deteriorate in tone, until the 
fixed lines of the moral boundary have 
become blurred and faint.' He adds 
that, * If among the surroundings of 
the theater a girl remains pure in heart, 
it is nothing short of a miracle of grace.' " 
The population of the show world is 
estimated at 100,000. You are en- 
couraging a great multitude in lives of 
immorality. 



PERILS OF THE STAGE. 15 

Fifth — Let us devote the remain- 
der of this discussion to the question : 
Ought Christians to patronize theaters ? 

(a) I am told that only in this way 
can the moral tone of the theater be 
raised. In answering this suggestion, 
let me give you Spurgeon's opinion : 
" The suggestion is about as sensible as 
if we were bidden to pour lavender 
water into the great sewer to improve 
its aroma. If the church is to imitate 
the world in order to raise its tone, 
things have strangely altered since the 
day when our Lord said: 'Come ye 
out from among them, and touch not 
the unclean thing.' Is heaven to de- 
scend to the infernal lake to raise its 
tone? Such has been the moral con- 
dition of the theatre for many a year, 
that it has become too bad for mending, 
and even if it were mended it would 
corrupt again." 

(b) But, we are informed that one 
should attend the theater in order that 
he may by seeing vice enacted turn 
from it with loathing. 

" Vice is a monster of such frightful mein 
As to be hated, needs but to be seen." 

If this were true, we would not 
have habitual theater goers, The re- 
sult is, as Pope shows, that the thing 
which we may at first loathe comes to 
be loved and then embraced. It is bad 



16 PERILS OF THE STAGE. 

enough to read impurity — infinitely 
worse to have it stalking before you on 
the stage. 

(cj But, one may say, we have no 
right to condemn the stage until we 
have become acquainted with its de- 
pravity, and in order to do this we must 
frequently visit the theater. As well 
say you have no right to condemn 
poison until you have taken it. You 
know the results of poison. Likewise 
you know the results of the theater. It 
is the very argument that stage mana- 
gers make to the world. They say to 
the preachers, you have no right to 
condemn before you have seen. Recent- 
ly the National Opera Company gave 
an invitation to the Chicago preach- 
ers to attend their perform- 
ances, and then judge of their 
moral trend. It was but the in- 
vitation of the spider to the fly. They 
knew the iniquity of their scheme, but 
to give themselves respectability they 
issued their invitation. Some of the 
preachers were caught in the trap; 
they went, and the Evening Posl, of 
Cincinnati, thus comments on the affair: 
" The Chicago preachers who went, 
by invitation, to see the ballet of the 
American Opera, went there to satisry 
their curiosity and see what it looked 
like. That's what all the young m^n 



PERILS OF THE STAGE. 17 

and women of their congregations go 
there for. They can not consistently 
exhort their parishioners to refrain 
from going where they themselves go. 
The excuse that they desired to inform 
themselves that they might forcibly 
condemn it, is too thin." Then follows 
a description of the ballet, which is too 
indecent for me to read. Then the 
writer adds: "Those preachers knew 
all this before they went there, for it is 
a matter of conceded, undisputed, uni- 
versal knowledge. Yet they went 
tLere to see whether it was bad or not. 
Bah ! " What a nicely-laid trap ! Come 
and see, before you condemn. Then 
make use of their example to urge 
their parishioners to go! O! the cun- 
ning of wickedness. The world will 
seek to win you by this false argument. 
Remember it is a lie. 

But now a few reasons why Chris- 
tians should not patronize the theatre, 
if any additional beyond those which 
have been given, are needed. 

(a) The almost uniform voice of the 
church opposes it. Christianity no- 
where approves it. It is heathen in its 
origin, as we have shown. Tertullian 
regarded the dramatic art as the "off- 
spring of hell" and the stage as part of 
the devil's pomp,which the candidate for 
baptism must renounce forever. Chry- 



Is PERILS OF THE STAGE. 

sostom courageously opposed the theat- 
rical passion of Antioch andConstantino- 
ple and declared the stage was the house 
of Satan and lies, the consumation of 
unchastity, the Babylonian furnace, 
which is heated with combustible 
material of unchaste words and atti- 
tudes. Augustine, after his conver- 
sion condemned the theatre as severely 
as he had before patronized it habitu- 
ally. Nor is the voice of the church 
less earnest to-day in its protest against 
this institution. 

(b) This opposition is based on 
serious considerations : 

(i) It endangers purity of charac- 
ter. " I'd give my right hand," said a 
Christian, " if I could rub out the 
abominable things that I put into my 
mind when I was a fast young man." 
Look not on impurity, if you would not 
have your soul stained. 

(2) It is ruinous to piety. Your 
worldly Christians are found there. 
Did you ever hear of a regular theater- 
goer who was a very devoted Bible- 
reader or very earnest in his Christian 
life? 

(3) It strengthens into a passion. 
" Like wine-drinking. It becomes an 
appetite and a very greedy one. To 
gratify this growing passion for the 
play-house, tens of thousands of young 



PERILS OE THE STAEE. 19 

people squander their money and their 
time most profusely. Other and purer 
recreations become tame and insipid." 
You cry for the excitement as the 
drunkard does for his dram. 

(4) Then remember the influence 
of your example. You who have chil- 
dren to save — remember, keen eyes are 
watching. Be not the agents to send 
to perdition those whom you love. 

Thus I have discussed at length this 
question. I have not given you my 
own assertions, but have been careful 
to back them with authority. You 
know the peril. I have swung aloft 
the danger-signal. It remains for you 
to choose and act for yourselves. God 
help you to be wise. 



20 PEBILS OK THE DANCE. 



PERILS OK THE DANCE. 



This sermon is not intended to be a 
diatribe. The form of speech known 
as philippic is not at all suited to the 
purpose of such an address. I have 
invited you to hear me on the question 
announced, not that I may use this pul- 
pit as a " coward's castie," from which 
to hurl abuse, but for the sole purpose 
of considering with you, calmly, dis- 
passionately and honestly the perils of 
a well-known amusement, than which 
none is more seductive and fascinating. 
Perhaps I can do no better than, in the 
outset, to give you a quotation from a 
distinguished preacher of our own day 
— expressing as it does my own feeling 
in relation to the subject before us. 
He says: "I am not ready to excom- 
municate all those who lift their feet 
beyond a certain height. I would not 
visit our youth with a rigor of criticism 
that would put out all their ardor of 
soul. I do not believe that all the in- 
habitants of Wales, who used to step 
to the sound of the rustic pibcorn, went 
down to ruin. I would give to all our 
youth the right to romp and play. God 



PERILS OP tfHE DANCE. 21 

meant it or he would not have sur- 
charged our natures with such exuber- 
ance. If a mother join hands with her 
children, and while the oldest strikes 
the keys, fill all the house with the 
sound of agile feet, I see no harm. If a 
few friends, gathered in happy circle 
conclude to cross and recross the room 
to the sound of the piano well played, I 
see no harm." 

I feel sure that the majority of 
Christians will indorse the sentiments 
of this distinguished preacher. " Mo- 
tion is one of the universal sources of 
pleasure among mankind,"says a writer 
who is defending the art of dancing. 
This we believe to be true. We ad- 
mire motion in " the heaving swell of 
the ocean," or "in the grand procession 
of the clouds," " in the sweep of an ea- 
gle's flight," or " the dazzling move- 
ments of the humming bird." There is 
a charm about orderly movement which 
none will dispute. Dancing, we are 
told, is 'rhythmical motion' — the poetry 
of motion; and, further, it is affirmed, 
"that since nearly every nation and 
tribe upon the face of the earth has its 
dance," is evidence of the innate love of 
the huiuan race for * rhythmical motion.' 
Certainly, 1 have no desire to deny any 
one of these statements. There is no 
harm in motion fer se 9 but, remember, 




22 PERILS OF THE DANCE. 

that motion can become a destructive 
power in the turbulent river as it 
rushes on in its mad career, or in the 
thundering avalanche which buries be- 
neath its awful weight precious human 
lives. So, I believe there is no harm 
in * rhythmical motion,' if only it be kept 
in the bounds of propriety and decen- 
cy. There are certain forms of 
dancing to which I see no objection, so 
long as they are freed from accompani- 
ments and associations which in them- 
selves are hurtful — so long as they are 
freed from the dissipations of the ball- 
room. I can see in such dances — 
those, I mean, in which there is noth- 
ing antagonistic to the most refined 
modesty — no impropriety. If our 
young people would only be satisfied 
with what the " dancing-master," from 
whom I have already quoted, terms 
" the morality of motion ; " with such 
motion, that is, as can only in its very 
nature be productive of physical health, 
then, as it appears to this speaker, no 
harm would come from such simple 
exercise. It is when these dances — 
unobjectionable in themselves — are 
connected with immodest dressing, the 
flow of wine, late hours, ill-ventilated 
and crowded rooms, and the introduc- 
tion of other enjoyments that are of 
questionable propriety — it is then that 



PERILS OF THE DANCE. 23 

the voices of good people are heard in 
condemnation of them. Here we have 
the abuse of that which is innocent in 
itself. We must not consider the 
almost irresistible impulse to keep step 
to the stirring strains of a military band 
or to beat time with the foot when 
some noble song floods our soul with 
melody as proof of our right to convert 
a natural instinct into an opportunity 
for gratifying our fleshly nature. This 
is what we do when we take those 
forms of the dance that are innocent 
and place them in the midst of sur- 
roundings that can be only productive 
of evil. 

I have said this much to assure you 
that I am not here to condemn indis- 
criminately. To be just in public 
speech is by no means an easy matter. 
My sincere desire in this series of ser- 
mons is to keep strictly within the lines 
of truth — to deal in perfect candor and 
fairness with the subjects which shall 
come under our consideration. We 
are not concerned to-night with the in- 
nocent side of this amusement. We 
have before us the more serious task 
of pointing out the perils of the dance 
of modern society — that dance which 
stands/aczle princess among the dances. 
I allude, of course, to the round dance. 
On the authority of Mr. Dodworth, 



24 PERILS OF THE DANCE. 

who has written a book on dancing, 
and who favors 'rhythmical motion' in 
all its manifestations, we learn that the 
polka — one form of the round dance — 
was taken from the peasants of Ger- 
many in 1840, and adopted by the 
fashionable society of Paris. From 
Paris it was disseminated all over the 
civilized world. Can any good thing 
come out of Paris? I bethink me that 
some of the most damning literature 
of this century has come to us from 
this gilded Babylon. The dance which 
Paris has given us is, alas! too sugges- 
tive of the tone of its immoral and in- 
decent novels. But, the author pro- 
ceeds to say: " From Paris, it was dis- 
seminated all over the civilized world, 
with consequences little anticipated at 
the time; for the introduction of this 
dance had a serious effect in lowering 
the respect formerly given to good 
motions and manners." If this were 
the only serious effect, there would be 
no need for tears. To the dancing- 
master, " a deterioration in the general 
tone of motion and manner" — this 
seems to be the essential matter to call 
forth regret. To the moralist and 
Christian, the introduction of such a 
dance is to be regretted, because it 
brought with it, and has kept with it, 
lax notions of propriety and^ modesty. 






PERILS OF THE DANCE. 25 

As with the polka, so with all fofms of 
the round dance. Alike, they are to 
be condemned on the ground of their 
utter failure to even suggest delicacy 
or refinement. They are throughout 
Parisian in tone. They all smack of 
their low origin — be the movements 
never so bewildering, be the curves and 
turns never so graceful. We behold in 
them the poetry of motion prostituted 
and debased. Surely you do not mean 
to use such strong language in regard 
to a dance which "so fully gratifies the 
sense of rhythmical motion as the mod- 
ern waltz, with its poetic time and 
phrasing?" Mr. Dod worth, our author 
on dancing, grows eloquent in his des- 
cription of the waltz — that " culmina- 
tion of modern society dancing," " the 
dance, which has for fifty years resisted 
every kind of attack, and is to-day the 
most popular known." " What is so 
charming," he joyously exclaims, " as to 
see a couple of our young people, just 
blooming into manhood and woman- 
hood, gliding about, here and there, in 
perfect accord of motion, rhythm and 
sentiment, with the strains of one of 
those exquisite compositions of Strauss 
or some other master, the ever-varying 
melody and harmony of the music sug- 
gesting to the dancers ever-changing 
expressions of motion. At first a legato 



26 . PERILS OF THE DANCE. 

movement; smooth-flowing and gentle; 
a beautiful bud, as it were, promising 
a glorious flower. The dancers glide 
over the floor in subdued joy, scarcely 
yet awake to the full meaning of their 
pleasure. A burst of harmony, chang- 
ing the key and introducing a more 
vigorous thought in the music, the 
dancers, in delighted sympathy spring 
about with more and more action. 

" See how like lightest waves at play 
The airy dancers fleet, 
And scarcely feels the floor the wings 
Of those harmonious feet." 

This description itself suggests, it 
seems to me, the evil tendency of the 
waltz. Read between the lines and 
beneath the surface of the letters. 
Bring the picture clearly before the 
mind. Glittering chandeliers, fragrant 
flowers, bewitching music, white 
throats resplendent with blazing gems, 
the rustling of silks and the far-off 
hum of conversation, like the drowsy 
drone of a beetle. In the midst of this 
splendor — this scene appealing to eye, 
ear and sense — the young couple be- 
gins to thread the intricate mazes of 
the dance — now bounding, now gliding, 
each responding to the motions of the 
other, interlocked in a fast embrace. 
Is it strange that the cheek is flushed, 
that the very atmosphere is tremulous 
with excitement? I dare to say that 




PERILS OF THE DANCE. 27 

the atmosphere of such a room is sur- 
charged with the fire of passion. In 
it slumbers the thunder of danger. 
Truly it has been said : " The tread of 
this wild intoxicating, heated midnight 
dance, jars all the moral hearthstones 
of the city." The round dance is es- 
sentially immodest. This is the ground 
on which we rest our emphatic con- 
demnation of it. Do not understand 
me to affirm that all who participate in 
it are immoral. I believe that there 
are young ladies — it may be the great- 
er part of them — who indulge in such 
dancing with no other thought than the 
pleasurable excitement connected with 
its various movements. They delight 
in the exercise, the bounding joy of it. 
I believe that there are young women 
who participate in the round dance 
whose souls are guarded by pure 
thoughts that, like sentinel angels, stand 
with flaming swords to keep back evil 
imaginations and suggestions. But 
your habitual male dancer — the habitue 
of the ball room — will not plead ignor- 
ance as to the secret of the fascination 
which such dancing has for him. If 
these pure young women could hear 
the remarks that are made by young 
men — after the dance is over and the 
dazzling scene gives place to darkness 
— the hot blood would mantle their 



28 PERILS OF Til I-: DANCE. 

cheeks and flush to their ear-tips. Let 
us grant all innocence to the fair wo- 
men — the hope and stay of the world 
— which can be granted consistently 
with truth, and even then, we ask: 
Is it right for such women to permit the 
touch (much less the embrace) of a 
man to whom they have just been in- 
troduced? Yea, is it right to permit 
such liberty on the part of any man? 
O, woman! next to Jesus Christ, the 
best gift of God to man, endowed with 
all those fine qualities which make 
your sex the glory of creation, you 
were not made to adorn a theater, upon 
whose glistening boards stalk the 
spectres of unholy imaginations and 
foul suggestions. Such spectres are 
upon the boards which are trodden by 
waltzing feet. You may not see them 
— God grant that you may never see 
them — but none the less true is it that 
they are part of the dramatis -personae. 
Notice the elements of the waltz, as 
given by the authority on u Dancing," 
to which several references have been 
made. This authority says: < Taking 
the waltz as a type of all other round 
dances, we observe that it consists of 
six elements: attitude, grouping, pre- 
cision, flexibility, accent, expertness.' It 
is with the first two elements that we 
have to do. Attitude and grouping are 



PERILS OF THE DANCE. 29 

the elements entering into this dance 
to which we file serious objection. Our 
authority says : " Attitude in each 
dancer should be such as to show fa- 
miliarity with the requirements of good 
taste. Grouping of the two must ac- 
cord with the dictates of modesty and 
propriety." 

We ask, however, in all serious- 
ness : " Can the attitude be harmonized 
with the requirements of good taste? 
Can any such groupings as this dance 
requires be made to " accord with the 
dictates of modesty and propriety? " It 
is a physiological impossibility. The 
very nature of the attitude and group- 
ing is an offense against modesty and 
propriety. Even Mr. Dodworth, my 
oft-quoted authority, says : " The idea 
of one holding the other should not be 
too strongly entertained. To dance 
together in sympathetic time and mo- 
tion should be the dominant thought." 
He seems to recognize the peril. But 
would round dancing be so popular, 
think you, "if the idea of one holding 
the other " were eliminated? It would 
be the play of Hamlet with Hamlet 
left out. But our dancing authority 
goes further. Mr. Dodworth says 
under the title, " Holding Partners ": 
1 Among the vulgar, uncultivated and 
vicious certain methods prevail, and we 



30 PERILS OF THE DANCE. 

naturally suppose that those methods 
are the result of the habits and feelings 
caused by the surroundings of those so 
unfortunately placed; but when like 
methods are found in cultivated society 
(mark, if you please, the admission. 
Such methods then of holding one's 
partner are found in cultivated society), 
among those who have had every op- 
portunity to improve their taste, it is un- 
questionably a shock to a thinking per- 
son." If the patron of the round dance 
and an instructor in its mysteries in- 
forms us that such methods are found 
in cultivated society, and that when 
found there, they are a shock to a 
thinking person, you will not be sur- 
prised that the voice of condemnation is 
heard from the pulpit. Please to re- 
member that the " new and enlarged 
edition" of Mr. Allen Dodworth's book 
on " Dancing and Its Relation to Educa- 
tion and Social Life " — the edition of 
1888; a book published for the pur- 
pose of telling you how to dance, and 
written in defense of this institution — 
this author in his book admits that 
vulgar and indelicate methods as to the 
manner of " holding the partner " are 
found in cultivated society. Is not this 
a sufficient reason for at least lifting a 
voice of warning? You may say it is 
the abuse of attitude and grouping that 



PERILS OF THE DANCE. 3l 

brings the evils you deplore. That is 
true, but it is also true that the attitude 
and grouping in themselves, however 
careful one may be in following direc- 
tions in relation to them, are utterly in- 
defensible. "Evil to him who evil 
thinks," I hear some one saying. It is 
puerile thus to defend an institution 
that has connected with it so much ad- 
mittedly worthy of censure. If it be true 
that such dancing is evil only to those 
who evil think, then enough evil is 
born of it (allowing the largest possible 
margin of innocence) to damn it for- 
ever. Dr. G. F. Pentecost is my au- 
thority for saying that the chief of 
police in one of our largest Eastern 
cities told him " that seven-tenths of all 
the girls who came to a bad end, were 
tempted to their fatal step through the 
seductions of the modern dance; that 
the destroyers of girls could not prosper 
in their nefarious business without the 
help of this alluring agency." Pardon 
these plain words. As God is my 
judge, I have no other desire than to 
sound an alarm. Those of you to 
whom I speak to-night may pass the 
falls without loss — having all the ex- 
citement incident to such adventure; 
but how many, alas, in making the 
dangerous passage, sink to rise no 
more! No one can afford to run the 



32 PERILS OF THE DANCE. 

risk. The passage is too perilous. 
Allow me to call your attention to 
another fact in regard to " attitude" and 
" grouping " in the modern waltz. 
Would any one attempt to defend the 
propriety of such attitude apart from 
music and motion? Dr. Pentecost, 
from whom I just now quoted, gives 
the following clipping. As it is part of 
a letter from Miss Olive Logan to one 
of the New York dailies, I am sure 
you can take no offense from my refer- 
ence to it. She says : " I heard of a 
rather amusing reply, given at a ball 
the other evening by an American girl 
in London society, who had strayed 
away from the ball-room. Her mother 
subsequently found her in a remote 
nook with a gentleman, who had his 
arm around her waist, while she rested 
the tips of her pretty little fingers on 
his manly shoulder. " Daughter, what 
does this mean?" exclaimed the irate 
mamma. Saucy cheeks looked up 
calmly and replied: " Mamma, allow 

me to introduce Capt. X to you. I 

had promised him a dance, but I was 
so tired that I could not keep my word, 
and I am giving him a sitting-still 
waltz instead." Is there a mother who 
is willing that her daughter should 
grant a "sitting-still waltz" to any young 
man of her acquaintance? But if the 



% PERILS OF THE DANCE. 33 

attitude is harmless, surely no objection 
can be offered consistently to such a 
waltz. If the attitude is improper under 
such circumstances, it is equally impro- 
per with the accompaniments of music 
and motion. It seems to me impossible 
to defend the round dance of our 
modern society. Do you ask is it right 
for Christians to indulge in such danc- 
ing? Let your own conscience answer 
God forbid that we should attempt to 
rob young Christians of any legitimate 
pleasure. Who does not love to behold 
sparkling eyes, beaming countenaces, 
fullness of life in every step and motion? 
Who would make the bounding blood 
of youth flow * less quietl} ? Who 
would drop the severity and austerity 
of winter into the lap of spring? Who 
would check the outpouring melody of 
the feathered songster who wishes to 
tell the story of his gladness? No, we 
wish for every young man and young 
woman all the innocent mirth which a 
responsive nature can receive. " Let 
joy be unconfined." But do not, I beg 
you, participate in those pleasures that 
will blunt the edge of modesty; that 
will make you less keenly alive to the 
spiritual; that will subject you to cri- 
ticism, the truthfulness of which you 
can but feel; that will interfere with 
your religious development; that will 



34 PEBILS OF THE DANCE. • 

make you love less your church and 
the communion of saints; that will make 
Bible-reading irksome, prayer a bur- 
den and attendance on the Lord's house 
a weariness unto the soul. Just such 
results flow from the round dance, set 
in the midst of its usual surroundings. 
You can not afford to be its patron. It 
threatens social purity. It is a menace 
to any progress in the divine life. 
" Have the white, polished, glistening 
boards ever been the road to heaven? 
Who, at the flash of those chandeliers, 
hath kindled a torch for eternity? From 
the table spread at the close of such 
midnight revelry, who went home to 
say his prayers? " It endangers health. 
A writer on this subject says : " There 
is but a short step from the ball-room 
to the graveyard. There are bad con- 
sumptions and fierce neuralgias close 
on the track. Amid that glittering maze 
of ball-room splendors, diseases 
stand right and left, and balance and 
chain. A sepulchral breath floats up 
amid the perfume and the froth of 
death's lips bubbles up in the cham- 
pagne." It is not conducive to the de- 
velopment of strong characters. Great 
men are not developed out of ball-room 
material. It imperils our homes, giv- 
ing large opportunity, as it does, for 
hasty and ill-advised marriages, and 



PERILS OF THE DANCE. 35 

besides leading so frequently to the 
neglect of domestic duties and responsi- 
bilities. 

Love for the dance becomes, in 
many instances, a passion — almost su- 
preme and over-mastering. I knew a 
cultivated woman who left her sick 
child (in a few days it died) that she 
might attend the ball. An extreme 
case, you say. This may be, but it 
shows how the influence of the dance 
— its fascination and charm — may re- 
sult in forgetfulness of the most sacred 
obligations. Dr. Talmage, who is ex- 
travagant in many of his utterances, 
spoke soberly when he said in connec- 
tion with this evil : " Many of our 
brightest homes are being sacrificed. 
There are families that have actually 
quit keeping house and gone to board- 
ing that they may give themselves 
more exclusively to the higher duties of 
the ball-room. Mothers and daughters, 
fathers and sons, finding their highest 
enjoyment in the dance, bid farewell to 
books, to quiet culture, to the ameni- 
ties of home. The father will, after a 
while, go down into lower dissipations. 
The son will be tossed about in socie- 
ty — a nonentity. The daughter will 
elope with a French dancing-master." 
And so the curtain will be rung down 
on the brilliant scence. Is the enjoy- 



36 PERILS OF THE DANCE. 

ment to be obtained from dancing suf- 
ficient to reimburse you for the loss of 
higher and purer enjoyment which it 
incurs? You remember the fable of 
the sirens. These sirens dwelt in cer- 
tain pleasant islands and " when from 
their watch-tower they saw any ship 
approaching, they first detained the 
sailors by their music, then enticing 
them to shore, destroyed them." Ulys- 
ses proposed to pass these islands 
without danger, by commanding his 
crew to stop their ears close with wax 
and directed that himself should be tied 
fast to a mast of the ship. Orpheus, 
without resort to such means, escaped 
all danger by " loudly chanting to his 
harp the praises of the gods." The 
latter method should be the Christian 
method of resisting those siren pleas- 
ures, which seek the destruction of 
body and soul. Instead of relying on 
external restraints, instead of trusting 
simply and solely to the strength of 
your will, sing the praises of godliness, 
chant the beauty of holiness, make 
sweeter music for yourselves out of all 
that God has provided you than can 
possibly come from the abode of any 
siren, however bewitching and seduc- 
tive. As Lord Bacon says, " the most 
excellent remedy, in every temptation, 
is that of Orpheus, who by loudly 



PERILS OF THE DANCE. 37 

chanting and resounding the praises of 
the gods, confounded the voices and 
kept himself from hearing the music of 
the sirens, for divine contemplations 
exceed the pleasures of sense, not only 
in power but also in sweetness." 

Give to yourself some worthier 
pursuit than whirling away life's pre- 
cious hours; a pursuit more in accord 
with the dignity of your nature — and 
the happiness which comes to your 
soul then will be of so much higher 
and purer quality that you will prefer 
to tread the simple round of duty to 
having all the excitement of ball-room 
dissipation. In this way love of the 
dance will be supplanted by a higher 
and diviner love ; the music of heaven 
will be more ravishing to your souls 
than any of the siren strains on earth. 



38 PERILS OF SOCIETY, 



PERILS OK SOCIETY. 



In the beginning of the discourse, let 
us understand clearly the nature of our 
task — what we mean to do, and in 
what fixed limits our investigations are 
to be confined. Society is a compre- 
hensive term. It is that commingling 
of rational beings by means of which 
the possibilities of the race are realized; 
that action and inter-action of individual 
souls, without which there could be no 
education, no development, and no ful- 
fillment of the purpose for which we 
were created. Certainly it is not our 
aim to describe the circumference of so 
large a word, and thus foolishly essay 
the task of pointing out the perils of 
mankind. There is no difficulty, how- 
ever, in understanding the term " soci- 
ety," as popularly employed. We 
know what it represents, although we 
may not be able to fix it, within the 
confines of a definition. " Modern So- 
ciety " is the euphonious phrase which 
we use to designate that company of 
our fellow-creatures who, because of 
distinguished birth or titled position or 
commanding eminence in some depart- 



PERILS OF SOCIETY. 39 

ment of human affairs, or wealth, or a 
combination of circumstances, arranged 
generally by the skillful manipulator 
who is seeking " admission," have been 
introduced into a certain sphere of so- 
cial activity, entitling them to the free 
and full enjoyment of its privileges and 
immunities. In this favored circle (if 
favored you choose to regard it) are 
those who flatter themselves that they 
are "in" by virtue of their descent; 
those who are invited to enter because 
of recognized influence ; those to whom 
the barred door opens when touched 
by " golden keys," and finally those 
who "crook the pregnant hinges of 
the knee," until after long humiliation, 
success follows fawning. You per- 
ceive, therefore, that this thing called 
" society " is composed of diverse ele- 
ments of life. It includes good, bad 
and indifferent. On the principle that 
like attracts like, various "sets" are 
formed, naturally within the circumfer- 
ence of this greater circle. There are 
those who, having an appearance of 
genuine elegance and refinement, 
stripped of tinsel and gew-gaws, come 
together on that basis. There are 
those who are drawn to each other by 
having a common taste for art or liter- 
ature. There are those who unite on 
the basis of gayety and dissipation. 



40 PERILS OF SOCIETY. 

Others there are who, agreeing to use 
their wealth to secure social patronage, 
form a distinct and well-defined class. 
M Bab," in one of her spicy letters to 
the Courier Journal, says : " Now is the 
time of year when you read about the 
u swell set," the u swagger set," and 
the " literary set," and the people who 
don't know any of them sigh and won- 
der how to get into society." These 
various classes or "sets" which I have 
enumerated, constitute what is known 
as " society." On prominent social oc- 
casions representatives from them all 
are assembled. By many, however, 
society is regarded as a charmed circle, 
in whose sacred area only the privileged 
few are permitted to tread — a circum- 
scribed territory in which reside the 
creme de la creme of social life, en- 
shrouded in an atmosphere too refined 
to be inhaled by ordinary lungs, clothed 
with rights and privileges which may 
not be accorded to the "madding 
crowd " — an Olympian height where 
dwells a favored coterie "curtained 
about with mists that blot our common 
ways out from their knowledge." 
From what has been said you readily 
recognize this picture as altogether 
fanciful — a very pretty dream; entirely 
lacking in any basis of reality. Since 
society is not clothed with the charms 



PERILS OF SOCIETY. 41 

which the highly-wrought imagination 
sometimes accords it, but it is an alto- 
gether ordinary and very natural insti- 
tution, [ may be permitted, without 
the charge of presumption, to discuss 
some of its perils. Of course what I 
shall say will not be applicable to all 
who are " in society," but only to those 
" sets " within the " circle " which will 
be recognized from the language em- 
ployed. I am under the necessity, 
however, of using the general term 
" society," with the reservation, as al- 
ready indicated, that what is true of a 
part is not necessarily true of the 
whole. 

First — I mention, first, the danger 
connected with the basal principle of 
society — exclusiveness. The principle 
itself is necessary; the wrong use of it 
is perilous. We see at once how any 
conception of society, save that which 
is founded on the universal brotherhood 
of man, must necessarily admit exclu- 
siveness. Dr. Holland very truly ob- 
serves that if we shut up in a parlor " a 
Marquis, a savant, a Croesus, a farmer, 
a merchant, a tallow-chandler, a black- 
smith, an Irish hod-carrier, a stage- 
driver, a dancing-master, a fop, a fool 
and a fiddler " there can be no social en- 
joyment. There is no community of 
tastes, pursuits or habits of thought. 



42 PERILS OF SOCIETY. 

Like attracting to itself like involves 
the exclusion of that which is unlike. 
Distinctions in society are, therefore, 
unavoidable. It is the danger of exclu- 
siveness to which your thought is invi- 
ted. Occupying a circle of social life 
that excludes by necessity others from 
sharing it with you, there springs up 
pride of position, and pride of position 
too frequently results in the non- recog- 
nition of your kinship to the race. On 
the part of the more sensible, while ac- 
cepting easily and gracefully the posi- 
tion which is theirs necessarily in har- 
mony with the law of affinities, the re- 
lation which they sustain to the wider 
brotherhood is not lost sight of. They 
honor manhood. They respect genu- 
ine worth wherever found. They re- 
cognize the common blood of the race 
pulsating in their veins. In their asso- 
ciation with the poor and unfortunate 
they do not carry about them an air of 
condescension. There is no thought of 
superiority — other than that which has 
come to them as the result of superior 
education and advantages. They do 
not look upon themselves as beings of 
another order. Their relations with 
all whom they meet are natural, cordial 
and sincere. But with most of the 
" sets," it is quite different. They pride 
themselves on their separation from the 



PERILS OF SOCIETY. 43 

" c( mmon herd." They pray the 
prayer of the proud Pharisee. " I thank 
thee O God, that I am not as this Pub- 
lican." They talk contemptuously of 
their kind. No true relation of fratern- 
ity is established between themselves 
and the great outlying world. Such soci- 
ety might drive to the house of Zaccheus 
and send the coachman to inquire if 
any service could be rendered, but to 
" abide in his house," as did the bles- 
sed Master, until the sorrows of the 
poor man were really and truly shared 
— this they would consider unworthy 
of their position. The sin of contempt- 
uousness is one of the crying sins of 
what is known as the " upper circles." 
W. D. Howells represents one of 
his characters as saying: " Arbuton 
thinks there are persons of low extrac- 
tion in heaven, but he does not like the 
idea." " If Arbuton could have been a 
divinely-commissioned apostle to the 
best society and been obliged to save 
none but well-connected, old-establish- 
ed and cultivated souls, he might have 
gone into the ministry." Here is por- 
trayed that spirit which has only smiles 
and sweet words for one of a particular 
" set," and has to do with all others 
mechanically, or as one who graciously 
condescends to grant a blessing. 
"Are you sure," says another of 



44 PERILS OF SOCIETY. 

Howells' characters, " that you are not 
doing more to help Miss Harkness, 
because she is a lady of fallen fortunes, 
than you would do for some poor girl 
who was struggling up and trying to 
support inebriate parents and pay a 
younger brother's way through col- 
lege? Are you sure that her being 
visited by a lord has nothing to do 
with your beneficent zeal? Are you 
certain that at the best you are seeking 
anything better than the self-flattery 
that comes through the ability to 
patronize a social superior? " Any 
social class which is foolish enough to 
suppose that position — however exalted 
it may be — entitles one to look down 
with contempt upon a feliow-creature; 
which with a toss of the head and a 
sneer speaks of the " rabble," the " com- 
mon herd," the "vulgar populace," 
which arrogates to itself, by virtue of 
the possession of wealth, literary taste, 
refined manners and what not, the 
right to pass by as unworthy of recog- 
nition or respect any true soul or 
which notices such an one with an air 
of condescension — any such social 
class is deserving of the righteous in- 
dignation of all sensible people. Let 
such (alas! that any such can be 
found!) understand that there are hu- 
man beings in this world besides one's 



PEHILS OF SOCIETY. 45 

self and one's set — human beings whom 
to despise is but to show that the 
meaning of life and its relations has 
never dawned upon their darkened 
vision. You may not associate on 
terms of intimacy with all (this would 
be to ask an impossibility), but do 
remember that you must honor, yea, 
reverence, all life — the mighty federa- 
tion of man — as being grander and 
diviner than any small department of it. 
Second — But it is in the sphere of 
what is known as " fashionable society" 
that most of the evils we deplore are 
to be found. Of this society, fashion is 
the ruling, governing principle. One 
is not in " fashionable society " unless 
he be " in fashion." Conformity is the 
law of its life. From conformity spring 
its sins. The great question of such 
society is not what is right, but what is 
fashionable. With it " good form " is 
better than morals. To dress a la 
mode is of infinitely more importance 
than to form a character according to 
the pattern given by the Lord Jesus 
Christ. " Oh, yes; it's the thing, you 
know," and to conform to " the thing " 
is esteemed of greater moment than 
" to be transformed by the renewing of 
one's mind, that he may prove what is 
that good and perfect and acceptable 
will of God." To do as others do; to 



?5 



46 PERILS OF SOCIETY. 

render unquestioning obedience to the 
requirements of certain social leaders; 
to do all things according to the pattern 
given from the sacred mount where 
fashion holds her council — this is the 
spirit and genius of the society we are 
now discussing. A "non-conformist 
may be " in society," but not in " fash- 
ionable society." The phrase itself 
excludes all who do not bow to the 
scepter of Fashion. Behold the reign 
ing Queen! She is the representative 
of Fashion. Her ways are Fashion's 
ways; her paths are Fashion's paths. 
Her favor is life; her frown is death. 
From her court go forth laws that are 
as binding as those of the Medes and 
Persians. Of her one says: "She's 
the very tip-top of the English here; 
she has a whole palace, and you meet 
the very best people at her house." A 
young lady is to sing before her majes- 
ty and the assembled court. Listen to 
a description of the scene : " I was 
afraid when you were singing, Lydia, 
that they would think your voice was 
too good to be good form — that's an 
expression you must get; it means 
everything —it sounded almost profes- 
sional. 1 wanted to nudge you to sing 
a little lower, or different, or some- 
thing, but I couldn't, everybody was 
looking so. No matter. It's all right 



PERILS OF SOCIETY. 47 

now. If she liked it, nobody else will 
dare to breathe." What a magnificent 
triumph! Fashion approves and all is 
well. Perhaps Milady is an admirer of 
foreign literature, of European man- 
ners and customs. So long as she 
sways her queenly scepter in Fashion's 
Court her taste must be gratified. On 
being invited to share her royal smiles, 
a young man says: "If I go to her 
house, to be like her other friends and 
acquaintances, I should have to be just 
arrived from Europe or just going; my 
talk should be of London and Paris 
and Rome, of the Saturday Review 
and Revue des deux Mondes, of English 
politics and society; my own country 
should exist for me on sufferance; I 
ought to have recently dined at New- 
port with poor Lord and Lady Scam- 
perton, who are finding the climate so 
terrible," and so on ad nauseam. You 
perceive that conformity to the reign- 
ing power — that individual or coterie 
who are Fashion's representatives — is 
the essential, basal principle underlying 
the brilliant structure of fashionable 
society. " Hear, O heavens; give ear, 
O earth," for the mighty and most 
well- beloved Empress of the " glorious 
Four Hundred " has evolved from her 
royal brain for the delectation of her 
leal and loyal subjects a new style of 



48 PERILS OF SOCIETY. 

tea, a Cleopatra gown or a classic 
phrase to be added to her rich vocab- 
ulary. Forthwith a whole troop of 
"fads" spring into life and and the 
fashionable world joyously welcomes 
these children of their Queen. But 
enough and more than enough in this 
direction. Who does not see that in- 
dividuality withers in such an atmos- 
phere? Who does not feel a contempt 
for such servility? Who does not 
know that all the show and glitter of 
this world of fashion can not atone for 
the loss of manly and womanly inde- 
pendence? I recognize the fact that a 
certain degree of conformity is neces- 
sary to the existence of polite society. 
In dress and manners it is eminently 
proper that a consensus of the good 
taste of many should be embodied in 
our books of etiquette and a reasona- 
ble compliance with recognized stand- 
ards of propriety should be expected 
from all who lay any claim to respecta- 
bility. But the slavishness of our 
fashionable society — its servile subjec- 
tion to trivialties — is indeed a sad 
spectacle. But the worst evils of con- 
formity result from being brought un- 
der the influence and dominion of the 
spirit and habits of this fashionable 
world. What is its spirit? Can we 
read its soul? 



PERILS OF SOCIETY. 49 

If conversation and action are inter- 
preters of this inner life, we may exer- 
cise at least some of Bishop's mind- 
reading power. An ambitious spirit is 
certainly one of the marked character- 
istics of this realm of which we are 
speaking — not an ambition to achieve 
great and useful ends, but an ambition 
none the less as intense as ever in- 
spired Cassar or Napoleon. Each is 
ambitious to be a leader in social 
circles, to be thought the belle of the 
season, to chronicle the most notable 
social event, to outvie all others in the 
magnificence of the entertainments 
furnished, to have advertised most ex- 
tensively a society triumph. What is 
the result? The concentration upon 
trivialities of a soul made for great 
things. Ambitious to succeed, all the 
energy of womanhood is brought to 
bear upon the trifles that will secure 
success. A vigorous - writer says : 
"This gilded sphere is utterly be- 
dwarfing to intellect and soul. This 
constant study about little things; this 
harassing anxiety about dress; this talk 
of fashionable infinitesimals; this shoe- 
pinched, hair-frizzled, fringe-spattered 
group — that simper and look askance 
at the mirrors and wonder, with i ni- 
ty of interest, < how that one gerai i im 
leaf does look; ' this shrivelling up of 



50 PERILS OF SOCIETY. 

man's moral dignity, until it is no more 
observable with the naked eye; this 
taking of a woman's heart, that God 
meant should be filled with all ameni- 
ties, and compressing it until all the 
fragrance and simplicity and artless- 
ness are squeezed out of it; this wrap- 
ping up of mind and heart in a ruffle; 
this tumbling down of a soul that God 
meant for great upliftings! " 

Besides, mean jealousies, petty rival- 
ries, back-biting and the most arrant 
insincerity are features of fashionable 
life that scarcely provoke remark. 
Such ambition as has been indicated 
necessarily gives birth to them. " I 
think her airs are detestable," said one 
young woman of another in her own 
circle. " She toadies fearfully," or 
" Such crowding and pushing as she is 
making ought not to be encouraged." 
Such phrases are specimens of the 
kindly feeling which members of the 
same " set " have for each other. 
When each is seeking for first place, 
when competition for honors is so 
fierce, when a place of prominence at 
some social gathering is striven for as 
though eternity were at stake, it is not 
surprising that you should hear such 
gentle remarks as those which I have 
quoted. It is not strange that jealousy 
should have a throne in the midst of 



PERILS OF SOCIETY. 51 

such surroundings, or that the gleam- 
ing eye of envy should look upon the 
scene. But, by a quick process of 
veneering, all this ugliness is concealed 
when these same lovely spirits enter 
into conversation. One would suppose 
that they had always " adored " each 
other, and that the soul of each was the 
abode of happy thoughts. Is it not a 
fine piece of acting? 

The spirit of such society is utterly 
ruinous to soul-development. It is 
productive of all the littlenesses which 
disgrace human nature. It is wholly 
opposed to the cultivation of sincerity 
and truth in our social relations. Envi- 
ous, hating, despiteful — these " lovely 
girls " and " fair women " meet each 
other none the less with the most 
gracious smiles and the most cordial 
expressions of good-will. We behold 
a scene of gilded hypocrisy. 

The ambitious spirit which animates 
our fashionable society is set on fire of 
hell. I have mentioned only a few of 
the long train of evils which follow in 
its course. It is utterly unworthy of 
any human soul. 

I remark, as further indicating the 
spirit of this society, that its whole 
environment ministers to vanity. It is 
a dress parade. It is a spectacular ex- 
hibition. It has an eye to stage-effect. 



PERILS OF SOCIETY. 



It loves to be admired, not for its 
character, but for its beauty, its dress, 
its splendor, its costly entertainments, 
its equipages. In the language of 
another: " Society says: Count not 
a woman's virtues, count her rings. 
Look not at the contour of the head, 
but see the way she combs her hair. 
Ask not what noble deeds have been 
accomplished by that man's hand, but 
is it soft and white. Ask not what 
good sense was in her conversation, 
but in what was she dressed. Ask not 
whether there was hospitality and 
cheerfulness in the house, but in what 
style do they live." I need hardly say 
that all this is not promotive of spirit- 
uality — that disposition of mind which 
is self-forgetful in seeking the good of 
others. Still, again, this society has an 
amusement-loving spirit. To this 
there is no objection, if confined within 
proper bounds, but when amusement 
becomes the chief end of life, it is in- 
deed perilous to the interests of the 
soul. Our fashionable society seeks 
amusement — nothing more. It suffers 
from ennui when not in the current of 
social gayety. It has no serious object 
in life. It simply desires entertain- 
ment. Of a certain character in a late 
novel it is said : " Women of fashion 
always interested him; he liked them; 



PERILS OF SOCIETY. 53 

it diverted him that they should take 
themselves seriously." Uselessness as 
respects their relation to any real work 
is their curse. 

You may have observed, also, a 
spirit seemingly devoid of any rever- 
ence for those fine qualities which are 
the glory of any character clothed with 
them. Indifference to any high stand- 
ard of moral life is exceedingly popu- 
lar. Said one : " Oh, I would not 
marry a man unless he had seen 
the world." Said another: "He is a 
little fast, you know ; but such a charm- 
ing fellow." Will you permit a quota- 
tion from the " Confessions of a Socie- 
ty Man?" "There are few girls in 
society who do not like to be taken 
into the confidence of a man of the 
world. It is always fascinating to the 
novice to look cautiously over the edge 
of a precipice, even though she may 
contemplate with horror the idea of 
lying crushed to death on the rocks 
below. When her head becomes 
steady from experience, it is a pleasure 
to her to see how near she can go to 
the edge without falling over. I have, 
over and over again, seen girls during 
their first season out, encourage the at- 
tentions of men whom they must have 
known, were leading fast lives, though 
they found it necessary to snub the few 



54 PERILS OF SOCIETY. 

reliable men they knew while doing 
so." There is no room in this inn 
for straightforward, uncompromising 
purity of character. Who are wel- 
comed into the fellowship of this high 
society? Men of notoriously immoral 
lives. Hear again from the " Con- 
fession." In describing " one of the 
boys," the author says : " With us the 
phrase was used to designate the men 
who were found at all the balls and 
parties, who could drink unlimited 
liquor, game all night and then afford 
to lie abed in the morning and sleep off 
the effects." Society excuses such of- 
fenses, because the young men are 
" gentlemen." " There is one notice- 
able fact about fashionable society 
which is admirable," sa) 7 s the frank 
writer in his " Confessions," " and that 
is, that although while a scandal lasts 
it is prone to talk it over to a tiresome 
degree, it is soon forgotten, and those 
who were connected with the trouble, 
take their old places, and no one thinks 
the worse of them." This unblushing 
patronage of immorality is a sufficient 
indication of the lack of any real rever- 
ence for fineness of soul, for purity of 
life, for old-fashioned righteousness. 
Additional comment is unnecessary. 

What shall we now say about some 
of the customs of this high life? What 



PERILS OF SOCIETY. 55 

does conformity to them involve? What 
think you of this confession from a so- 
ciety man — " I have heard men 
speaking of going to a lady's house 
with the deliberately formed intention 
of drinking to excess. Little is thought 
of it, however, by the patrons of socie- 
ty, and if a man who becomes intoxi- 
cated at one house is invited to the 
next entertainment, of course, he can 
see no offense in what he has done." 

Again, this refreshingly candid writer 
says : " While women dislike to have 
wine at their entertainments, they do 
not care to bar the men of wealth and 
station out of their houses merely be- 
cause they drink to excess." All this 
is justified on the ground that " the 
testament of society is a much more 
liberal one, it must be confessed, than 
that of the serious church goers." To 
tell of the wreck and ruin wrought by 
the wine-drinking custom, I should 
have to dip my pen in the blood of 
crushed hearts. Many a young man 
can trace his downfall in life to a glass 
of wine handed him by some fair host- 
ess, whose careless banter and bewitch- 
ing smiles overcame his better judg- 
ment. 

I need do no more, in addition than 
to call your attention to the craze for 
cards, which seems to have taken pos- 



56 PERILS OF SOCIETY. 

session of nearly all our social circles. 
I know nothing of card-playing, and 
will indulge, therefore, in no violent 
invective. I am of opinion, however, 
that it is a dangerous amusement. 
Even when there are no stakes, it fre- 
quently kindles a passion for play 
that leads to the gambling table. Do 
not sport with fire that threatens awful 
conflagration. I very much fear thbt 
many of our social queens are furn- 
ishing gamblers for our clubs. In con- 
clusion, permit me to say that I enter- 
tain no grudge against " society " 
organized on a basis which does no 
violence to morality. It is recognized 
that social classes are a necessity, but 
we must see to it that their existence 
does not endanger our love of humani- 
ty. We must see to it that they be 
founded upon right principles, that they 
be animated by a spirit which is con- 
sistent, at least, with spiritual develop- 
ment, and that they be marked by 
customs which will not result in the 
ruin of body and soul. It must be 
said, however, that the fashionable so- 
ciety of to-day is utterly at variance 
with Christian living. It fosters no 
worthy aspiration. Its piety is an af- 
fectation. Its atmosphere chills and 
kills all nobility of soul. It has no ten- 
dency to engender healthful thoughts. 



PERILS OF SOCIETY. 57 

It promotes no worthy ambitions. It is 
such a life as will not bring to old age 
sweet memories. Its dissipations make 
death-beds horrible. From its gaye- 
ties one would not wish to step into 
eternity. Its glitter and show are but 
the trappings and plumes of the hearse 
which is the receptacle of death. Its 
energy is expended on trifles. Its 
strength is wasted in the pursuit of 
bubbles. It is a threatening precipice, 
on the edge of which whirls a gay and 
thoughtless throng; at the base of 
which are bitter thoughts, vain regrets 
and ruined lives. It is a gilded show. 
Unlike the King's daughter, all is not 
lovely within. I plead for society that 
is ennobling — society which, if it has 
wealth, does not parade it; "If its 
blood is blue, its reputation is while. Its 
daughters are not advertised in the 
daily papers as professional beauties, 
and its sons are not conspicuous among 
the fast set. It is charitable and kind. 
Its men are honest and its women are 
above reproach.' I plead for such so- 
ciety as will not bring a blush to the 
cheek of modesty or leave a stain on 
the heart of innocence. I plead for 
society that is characterized by cheer- 
fulness without dissipation, mirth with- 
out recklessness, that believes in eterni- 
ty, and hence will not squander time. 



58 PERILS OF SOCIETY. 

It is worth while for us to remember 
that God lives, that life has meaning 
and that character determines destiny. 
Let our prayer be — " so teach us to 
number our days that we may apply 
our hearts unto wisdom." 



PERILS OF BUSINESS. 59 



PERILS OK BUSINESS. 



Were I called upon to respond to 
such a toast, relative to the world of 
business, as our enterprising Commer- 
cial Club might suggest, I should feel 
myself inadequate to the task of pro- 
nouncing a eulogy worthy the occasion 
and the subject. To be an active, 
honorable and efficient worker in this 
mighty realm of life, is to be a co-op- 
erant with God, in having a divinely- 
approved ministry. All worthy effort 
— in whatever department of activity — 
is a contribution toward the realization 
of " that far-off, divine event, to which 
the whole creation moves." Hence, 
as the sage of Chelsea tells us : " All 
true work is sacred; in all true work, 
were it but true hand labor, there is 
something of divineness. Labor, wide 
as the earth, has its summit in heaven." 
Certainly, in this world of business, 
toil receives its aureole. Is it not a 
thrilling spectacle — that of a multitude 
of our fellow creatures, rising each 
morning in answer to labor's reveille; 
touching those springs which open 
shops, stores, factories; setting in mo- 



60 PERILS OF BUSINESS. 

tion that complicated and wondrous 
machinery of brawn and brain which 
shall make for us bread, give to us 
clothing, provide for us comfortable 
homes and preserve for us the glorious 
civilization of which we boast. " Bus- 
iness," waking from its mighty slum- 
ber, preaches each day a sermon on 
the glory and nobility of work. Its 
sermon is heard in the whir of myriad 
wheels, in the tread of hurrying feet, 
in the scratch of innumerable pens and 
in the still, small voice of mind, directing 
stupendous enterprises, and governing 
the thousand forces which await its 
word of imperial command. Truly 
such preaching is marked by an elo- 
quence superior to that which glorifies 
the most fervid oratory. It is practical 
preaching. Its sentences are deeds. 
Its utterances are read in accomplished 
results. Besides proclaiming with 
such vigor and earnestness this sermon 
on the perennial nobleness of work, the 
business world asserts its high rank 
and makes its rightful claim to our 
consideration by virtue of its develop- 
ment of human character. 

In the successful prosecution of 
busines, we behold thr growth and ex- 
hibition of such virtues as self-reliance, 
industry, decision, attention to details, 
economy, concentration, punctuality, 



PERILS OF BUSINESS. 61 

strength of will, accuracy, public- 
spiritedness and a long list of excel- 
lences which form a crown of glory for 
their possessor. On no theater of ac- 
tion are there grander opportunities 
for the cultivation and display of these 
manly qualities, which win success. In 
view of the moral possibilities of this 
sphere of work, it becomes an honor 
to share its activities. We gladly 
award the meed of praise to business 
that is high-toned, that contributes to 
the bettering of mankind, that pro- 
claims the nobility of labor and that 
encourages those traits of character, 
for the realization of which its peculiar 
duties so well adapt it. But there is 
another side to this question. Business 
life has its temptations and by conse- 
quence its dangers. It is in the throb- 
bing, pulsing life of traffic and trade 
that character is most severely tried. 
In this realm of buying and selling, one 
is truly weighed in the balances. It is 
in the money kingdom that one most 
clearly reveals his littleness or nobility 
of soul. It is in this wide dominion of 
commerce that one's real worth is dis- 
covered. It is here that the strength 
of one's religion is tested, the capacity 
of one's faithfulness is ascertained, the 
quality of one's temper is defined. It 
is here, in a pre-eminent degree, that 



62 PERILS OF BUSINESS. 

we become acquainted with one's 
conception of life, and obtain clear 
insight into its governing princi- 
ples. In this business world, there- 
fore, are found some of the highest 
qualities and some of the meanest vices. 
In it, character is put to the test and 
found worthy or weighed and found 
wanting. In it, the soul resisting temp- 
tations, converts them into strength, 
or yielding to them, is wrecked for 
two worlds. Its very perils can be 
used as means of growth. 

" The great stimulus that spurs to life, 
And crowds to generous development 
Each chastened power and passion of the soul, 
Is the temptation of the soul to sin, 
Resisted and reconquered, ever more." 

It is not our aim in this sermon to 
enter very largely into details. As in 
sweeping the eye along a range of 
mountains, you observe the prominent 
peaks, so we shall ask you to consid- 
er a few of the most conspicuous dan- 
gers connected with business — those 
dangers whose greatness forbids their 
being ignored. 

You will very readily admit, I am 
sure, that one great peril of business 
life is an excessive haste to acquire 
wealth. Long ago the wise king said: 
" A faithful man shall abound with 
blessings, but he that maketh haste to 
be rich shall not be innocent." I may, 



PERILS OF BUSINESS. 63 

without irreverence, place alongside 
this sentence from inspiration the noble 
words of Horace Greeley: " The 
darkest day in any man's earthly ca- 
reer is that wherein he first fancies that 
there is some easier way of gaining a 
dollar than by squarely earning it." 
We are living in a fast age. The stage- 
coach has been supplanted by the rail- 
way, and very soon, it may be, the 
railway will give place to the air- ship. 
The spirit of the nineteeth century, like 
a breathless courier, rides to the door 
and shouts, " Haste ! " The very at- 
mosphere is tremulous with our quick- 
ened life. The world's pulse beats 
faster. Our intense civilization can 
not rest satisfied with slow processes. 
Quick travel; quick speech; quick 
methods. It is not strange, therefore, 
that men should be in a hurry to make 
money. Says Mathews: " Exception- 
al persons there are, who are content 
with slow gains — willing to accumu- 
late riches by adding penny to penny, 
dollar to dollar, but the mass of busi- 
ness men are to apt to despise such a 
tedious, laborious ascent of the steep 
of fortune." Nor do we object to 
rapid accumulation so long as one trav- 
els the old path of honesty. Some 
men there are, who are born with a 
genius for acquiring wealth. It has 



64 PERILS OF BUSINESS. 

been observed of them that " the talent 
and the inclination to convert dollars 
into doubloons by bargains or shrewd 
investments are in them just as strong- 
ly marked and as uncontrollable as 
were the ability and the inclination of 
Shakespear to produce a Hamlet and 
an Othello; of Raphael to paint his 
cartoons: of Beethoven to compose 
his symphonies; of Morse to invent an 
electric telegraph." Such men, in the 
nature of things, will speedily gain 
prominence in the financial world. 
Rapid accumulation with them is but 
the result of a natural gift. But the 
general rule is, that haste in acquir- 
ing riches is most detrimental to the 
moral life. But evil results are appa- 
rent. Who is not aquainted with what 
are denominated " tricks of the trade? " 
And who does not know that such 
methods of quickly securing gain are 
an offense to righteousness? If a gro- 
cer chooses to sell oleomagarine for 
what it is, well and good; but when he 
palms it off on innocent customers as 
genuine butter, he is guilty of fraud. 
" Wooden nutmegs, and sand for pep- 
per, doctored coffee, glucose, adultera- 
tion raised to the dignity of a fine art, 
cloth with the gloss of broadcloth upon 
it, but made of contemptible shoddy; 
high priced shoes with pasteboard 



PERILS OF BUSINESS. 65 

soles; all kinds of food and beverages 
1 fixed and seasoned,' so that an inferi- 
or brand of goods may be sold at a 
superior price" — these are some of the 
supposed short-cuts to wealth. Can 
such methods be harmonized with 
honest dealing? Is it right to conceal 
facts or to misrepresent facts in order 
to induce a purchase? Is it right to 
take advantage of ignorance? Is it 
right to falsify the quality of one's 
wares? I remember that Solomon 
says : " Wealth gotten by vanity shall 
be diminished," and again : " He that, 
by unjust gain increaseth his substance, 
he shall gather it for him that will pity 
the poor." 

u In vain we call old notions fudge 

And bend our conscience to our dealing, 
The ten commandments will not budge, 
And stealing will continue stealing." 

You can not, by any glossing process, 
conceal the nature of dishonesty. The 
most plausible pretext will not make 
wrong right. What we call " sharp- 
ness " in trade may indicate mental 
quickness, but it reveals a sad moral 
condition. Never were truer words 
uttered than those which I now quote : 
" Given a world of knaves, to produce 
an honesty from their united action." 
It is a distillation, once for all, not pos- 
sible. You pass it through alembic after 
alembic, it comes ou still a dishonesty ; 



66 PERILS OF BUSINESS. 

with a new dress on it, a new color to 
it. We can not change the facts of 
the moral world. Any form of cheat- 
ing results in the obscuration of the 
moral sense, the blunting and deaden- 
ing of a sensitive conscience. One 
may well tremble when he can perpe- 
trate a fraud without any feeling of 
self-condemnation. 

But this haste to be rich not only in- 
troduces into business such disreputa- 
ble methods of gain, as I have briefly 
indicated, but it claims a larger world 
for its exercise. It opens wide the 
door for reckless speculation. In this 
lottery " he is considered the shrewdest 
fellow who can throw double-sixes 
oftenest." Once start in the career of 
dishonesty and soon all moral distinc- 
tions will become obliterated. 

'Tis fearful building upon any sin ; 

One mischief entered lets another in. 

The second draws a third, the third draws more, 

And these for all the rest open wide the door; 

Till custom blunts the judging sense, 

That, to offend, we think it no offense. 

The stock: gambler has reached that 
moral state " to offend, he thinks it no 
offense." He will openly attempt to 
justify his nefarious business. I can 
do no better in this connection than to 
give you the vigorous words of Bishop 
Newman. He says: " When in the 
day of plenty, the shrewd, unscrupu- 



PERILS OF BUSINESS. 67 

lous speculator, by well laid plans, 
monopolizes an article of food to create 
an artificial scarcity and thus raises the 
price while the supply is abundant, and 
by so doing, causes the poor man to 
pay ioo per cent, more for his food 
than the natural law of supply and 
demand requires, he is a robber of 
the poor as well as an offender against 
the acknowledged principles of com- 
mercial integrity. A broker on 
" Change " who causes false informa- 
tion to be circulated for the purpose 
of raising or depressing the price of 
securities, or the price of gold, and 
reaps profits from that deep rascality, 
is a criminal against honesty. He who 
gives publicity to the report that a 
given bank is on the verge of insolvency 
in order to depress its stock, and then 
purchases all that is thrown upon the 
market, and he who gives currency to 
reports that some rotten financial insti- 
tution is solvent and flourishing, and 
then sells out his holdings, is alike a 
criminal against property, and to all 
such men God says, " Thou shalt not 
steal." There are more ways than 
one of robbing than breaking open the 
back door of a man's house. One need 
not become a highwayman in order to 
acquire expertness in thieving. Alas! 
under the name of " business " he may 



68 PERILS OF BUSINESS. 

do the work of a bandit. " It matters 
not in what such men deal, whether in 
oroide watches or in watered stock, 
whether they make * corners ' in wheat 
or in gold, whether they gamble in 
oats or at roulette,whether they steal a 
railway or a man's money by « gift-con- 
certs ' — the principle in all cases is the 
same, namely, to obtain something for 
nothing, to get values without parting 
with anything in exchange." Such 
business — if we may apply so honor- 
able a term to so disreputable an oc- 
cupation — is ruinous to body and soul. 
Fortunes thus acquired are not built 
upon an enduring foundation. They 
are like the " grass of the field, which 
to-day is and to-morrow is cast into 
the oven." Great and lasting results 
are not achieved save by great and 
continued labor. He who would rear 
a palace of wealth, in whose spacious 
apartments shall dwell the angels of 
peace, happiness and contentment, and 
which shall longest defy the encroach- 
ments of time, must lay, as its broad 
and deep foundation, the principles of 
truth and righteousness, and then, by 
patience, industry and economy, build 
the walls higher and higher, until it 
shall stand at last, in its finished beauty, 
the magnificent reward of long years 
of toil and thought. One whose range 



PERILS OF BUSINESS. 



of observation justified confident as- 
sertion, has said: "All those kinds of 
business which are surest in the end, 
which pay best in the long run, are 
slowest in beginning to yield a return. 
The truest success in every profession 
is often like the growth of the American 
aloe, for many years slow and imper- 
ceptible. Then, all at once, when the 
time comes, there is a crisis. The 
plant shoots up a stalk ten or fifteen 
feet high, hung with innumerable 
flowers." To make haste slowly, to 
advance by honest means, to squarely 
earn every dollar, to preserve our in- 
tegrity to keep a sensitive conscience 
— this is the royal road to real success. 
There is another danger, involved in 
the very nature of business, which 
threatens the highest interests of the 
soul. Its existence is compatible with 
honesty and the possession of many 
ennobling traits of character. Its fear- 
ful results are frequently observable in 
men of unexceptionable integrity — men 
whose commercial and social relations 
are above suspicion. It is a frowning, 
beetling cliff whose shadow projects 
itself over the entire business world. 
Many, recognizing the shadow, avoid 
the danger; others are crushed by the 
awful reality. The peril to which I 
allude, is the materialization of life. 1 



PERILS OF BUSINESS. 



have said that it was involved in the 
very nature of business. This is evi- 
dent. The world of business is a 
world of the senses. It has to do with 
facts. It prides itself on being practi- 
cal. Its thoughts are of gain. Its 
mental energy is expended on devising 
ways and means of accumulation. Its 
imagination builds palaces which shall 
tell of the triumph of wealth. Its 
dreams are of stocks and bonds, of 
houses and lands, of buying and selling. 
Its conversation is of notes promissory, 
notes negotiable; of bargains and in- 
vestments; of dollars and cents. 
" Property, property, property," is the 
refrain of the song that is never ended. 
Now, this business world is a necessity. 
It is right that one should give time, 
thought and energy to win success in 
it. Practicality is indispensible. It is 
quite natural that the business man 
should think and talk of those things 
with which he has most to do — those 
things which are a part of his every- 
day experience. All this is well. The 
fearful danger of which we speak, 
arises from contracting life until it fits 
within the circumference of business; 
the non-recognition or non-appreciation 
of a world of thought, feeling, imagina- 
tion, beauty — and yet none the less a 
real world — outside the limited sphere 



PERILS OF BUSINESS. 71 

of practical affairs. To ignore this 
other world; to be indifferent to its 
claims; to make our nature impervious 
to its influence — this is to materialize 
life — to limit the exercise of the soul's 
magnificent powers within the circum- 
scribed territory of the senses and to 
deny its inherent right to claim the 
ideal and spiritual as its possessions. 
A soul thus imprisoned within the nar- 
row confines of actual business experi- 
ence : that has no windows through 
which it may look up and out into the 
infinite; that has no doors through 
which it may pass into the realm of 
fancy ; that has no couch upon which 
it may lie down to dream of angels 
ascending and descending on ladders 
of light — such a soul is robbed of the 
purest and highest enjoyments of life. 
Given the most splendid surroundings 
— a residence to the elaboration and 
construction of which the highest ar- 
chitectural genius has contributed ; the 
costliest paintings hung on its walls, 
embodying visions of rarest beauty and 
noblest feeling; the choicest library, 
containing the life-blood of master-spir- 
its; the sublimest music, furnished by 
the best talent that wealth can com- 
mand — music, we will suppose, that 
would evoke from a sensitive heart 
thoughts of love, of heaven, of God. 



72 PERILS OF BUSINESS. 

Place such a soul as I have described 
in the midst of such an environment. 
It would be in exile. It would be a 
picture of lonely wretchedness. Its 
world would have nothing in common 
with this world of genius and thought 
and taste. Its appreciation would be 
limited by the money- value represented. 
Of such a soul, the lines of Tennyson 
relative to the " dark-brow'd sophist " 
are applicable: 

" The flowers would faint at jour cruel cheer. 

In your eye there is death, 

There is frost in your breath 

Which would blight the plants. 

Where you stand you can not hear 

From the groves within 

The wild-bird's din." 

In a world of beauty, there is no eye 
to see; in a world of song, no ear to 
catch its melodies; in a world of senti- 
ment, no imagination to appreciate its 
delicate manifestations; in a world of 
spiritual realities, no capacity of 
response to its glory. Did I not speak 
truly when I said that the materializa- 
tion of life meant robbing the soul of 
its purest and highest joys? I appeal 
to business men to guard against this 
peril. " Be diligent in business;" but 
recognize that there is part of your 
nature to which business can not min- 
ister. Read good books, until a really 
great thought will thrill you more than 



PERILS OF BUSINESS. 73 

a successful investment. Cultivate a 
love of the beautiful, until you can at 
least appreciate the genius of a paint- 
ing or the glory of a sunset; until art 
and nature alike shall suggest unseen 
realities. Let imagination lead the 
way into realms of noble speculation. 
Introduce into your ideal life whatever 
can refine the nature or widen the ho- 
rizon of the soul; whatever will make 
the spirit more susceptible to truth, 
beauty and goodness; whatever will 
bring peace and joy to the highest part 
of your immortal selves. Keep the 
windows of your being open to all 
corners of the universe. Be not con- 
tent with what you can see and handle, 
for life is larger than any territory that 
the senses can bound. 

I pray you to occupy all heights 
from which you can obtain broad views 
of God's world and from which you 
can look up into that heaven whose 
very infinitude says: " and yet there is 
room." If I have seemed to lay too 
much stress on the materializing influ- 
ence of business, attribute it to the 
magnitude of the peril involved in its .evil 
influence. " Grant the utmost that can 
be said of the necessity and the value 
of money," writes a distinguished 
author, " it will still remain forever true 
that life is more than the means by 



74 PERILS OF BUSINESS. 

which it is sustained; more than dwell- 
ings, lands, merchandise, stocks, bonds 
and dividends; more, even, than food 
and raiment. All things are for the 
mind, the soul, the divine part within 
us; and if this, our true self, is dwarfed 
and starved, the most royal worldly- 
possessions only serve to set forth by 
contrast its deep poverty and servitude." 
Make life a conscious joy, not a mere 
tread-mill existence. Do not permit 
the current of life to flow in a narrow 
channel. Deepen it, widen it, so that 
it can receive into its bosom all tribu- 
taries, all helpful influences. 

You will permit me, in conclusion, to 
mention another evil — one, I fear, that 
is common in the business world. It 
springs from the non-recognition of the 
true relationship which employers 
should sustain to those in their employ. 
Carlyle very forcibly presents the dan- 
ger when he says: "We have pro- 
foundly forgotten everywhere that cash 
payment is not the sole relation of 
human beings; we think, nothing 
doubting, that it absolves and liquidates 
all engagements of man." Of one's 
clerks, there is a disposition to ask: 
"Did I not hire them fairly in the 
market? Did I not pay them to the 
last six pence, the sum covenanted for? 
What have I to do with them more? 



PERILS OF BUSINESS. 75 

You have young men in your service 
— some of them far from home and 
loved ones; some of them, under the 
spur of encouragement, capable of 
such helpfulness in your business as 
you little suppose; all of them subject 
to the temptations of city life. Are 
you under no further obligation to them 
than to pay them their wages? Do 
you recognize only a cash basis of 
relationship? Here is the peril. An 
employer forgets that those under him 
are anything more than paid servants. 
He does not realize that in any sense 
he is his brother's keeper. So much 
pay for so much work — there the con- 
nection ends. Our managers and pro- 
prietors need to remember that moral 
responsibility arises from all social 
relationships — a responsibility that is 
not discharged when the mere letter 
of the i>ond has been complied with. 
Every employer owes to his employes 
sympathy, kindly treatment, interest in 
their surroundings, encouragement, 
friendly recognition. How the heart 
of a young man thrills when the one 
whom he recognizes as master speaks 
to him a word of good cheer! Do not 
withhold commendation if one who is 
serving you has deserved it. A warm 
hand-shake, a sympathetic smile, 
fatherly or brotherly counsel — these 



76 PERILS OF BUSINESS. 

things are sometimes valued infinitely 
more than dollars. Are you a Christian 
employer? Invite your clerks to the 
Sunday-school or church. As you find 
opportunity, speak to them of the glory 
and dignity with which Christian living 
is invested. Have them occasionally 
at your own board. Let them know 
that you feel an interest in their wel- 
fare. What magnificent opportunities 
for doing good! 

Money is a marvelous power in this 
world of ours. It can almost work 
miracles. But it is not the divinely re- 
cognized bond of union between man 
and man. " We be brethren " — this is 
the truth we must learn. The pay- 
ment of wages can not atone for 
the lack of brotherliness. It can 
not discharge us from those duties 
which are an outgrowth of our 
associations. It can not take the 
place of those blessings which only a 
loving heart can bestow. You can not 
make money pay the whole of a debt 
which you owe to a fellow man. If 
capital recognized in labor a brother — 
one with a heart capable of appreciat- 
ing affection, one with a soul that longs 
for kindliness and sympathy, one with 
an environment that calls for helpful- 
ness and encouragement, I feel sure 
that a better day would dawn on the 



PERILS OF BUSINESS. 77 

great world of business. Instead of 
antagonism, there would be genuine 
fellowship. Instead of crimination and 
recrimination, there world be a con- 
scious recognition, a mutual dependence. 
The panacea for the evil we deplore in 
business life is to be found in the 
sublime truth of Christianity — " One 
is you Father, and all ye are breth- 
ren." 

" For a' that, and a' that, 
It's comin' jet for a' that, 
That man to man, the world o'er, 
Shall brothers be for a' that," 




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